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Eight years and six All-Star appearances in the making, Brian McCann recorded his 1,000th hit in the midst of an Atlanta Braves 7-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates at Turner Field on Monday.

McCann hit a broken-bat single to left field off Pirates reliever Mike Zagurski to reach four digits in the hit column. He doffed his helmet to the crowd in acknowledgement.

"It's a cool moment," McCann said on braves.com. "When you're a kid, you don't think you're going to get a hit in the big leagues, let alone a thousand. It's a cool milestone. I'm hoping to get many more."

McCann's 999th career hit was much more impressive – a two-run homer in the fourth inning off A.J. Burnett to give the Braves a 2-1 lead.

Burnett had issues with home plate umpire Dan Lassonga and his strike zone, leading to Russell Martin and Pirates manager Clint Hurdle being ejected three batters later, even though Martin never turned around to argue with Lassonga. Martin maintained that his remark was simply to himself.

"The umpire didn't call a pitch that I thought was a good pitch, and I stood up and I [cursed], and he threw me out," Martin said on pirates.com. "That's the way it happened."

Burnett was never able to fully recover from his battery mate and skipper being tossed, and he gave up two-run homers to Jason Heyward and Freddie Freeman within the first four batters of the fifth inning. Heyward's two hits were his first since May 25.

"We're on our way," Heyward said. "It's going to take at-bats. It's going to take feedback and it's going to take doing it. It's going to take screwing up sometimes. But the only way I can get better at it is play."

What's more amazing for the Braves is that they actually scored runs in support of Kris Medlen, who picked up his first win since April 9. Atlanta had averaged 2.52 runs in Medlen's last 11 starts.

Medlen was on his command Monday, giving up one run over seven innings while walking none and striking out six. The only damage he incurred came on an RBI double by Gaby Sanchez in the third inning

"Any time you get run support like that, you've got to take advantage," Medlen said.

The Braves now have a seven-game lead in the National League East and have hit three or more homers in 13 of their 57 games this season. They only accomplished that feat 11 times all of last year.